A gang of raiders Novinsky survives at all times — the history of enrichment Russian oligarch in Ukraine

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Vadim Novinsky was born on March 3, 1963 in StarayaRusa, Novgorod region (Russia). 1985 — graduated from Leningrad Civil Aviation Academy (majoring in engineer of control systems).1985-1989 — worked in Petrozavodsk aviagroup. 1989-1991 — a member of the chair of control systems and computer engineering of Civil Aviation Academy (Leningrad). 1991-1996 — a member of the Center for advanced studies (St. Petersburg).

Novinsky Vadim Vladislavovichisthe owner of Smart-Holding. In 2013 he was elected a people’s deputy of Ukraine in the majority district during the by-election in Sevastopol. According to a recent ranking of the top 100 richest Ukrainians, compiled by NovoyeVremya magazine in cooperation with Dragon Capital, Novinsky took the 7th place in the ranking of the richest people of Ukraine with $709 million, although in the last year he became a millionaire froma billionaire. Having worked for more than 15 yearsin Ukraine Novinsky took the shortest way to wealth by becoming a master of intrigue and deception of his partners, creating the conditions of administrative pressure and the widespread use of relations in different agencies.

Hennadiy Korban’s off-the-book, being partially published by General Prosecutor’s Office, is likely to be genuine. Such thought was expressed by people’s deputy of Ukraine, Deputy Head of the Committee of Verkhovna Rada on the prevention and fight against corruption.

«Should we trust such documents, the so-called Hennadiy Korban’s off-the-book? At least, they should be taken into account, because it is a known fact that such off-the-book exists in the majority of political forces. It is not a surprise for our society. People know well that most of the politicians use political funds and get salary from such funds, – Viktor Chumak claims. – Why it has been published, because it is difficult to prove it in the course of procedural order, it is a political corruption. That is why prosecutor’s office published it, because it cannot be used as evidence in the criminal proceedings. But it can be used as an evidence of political corruption».

It is to be recalled that in December 2015 General Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine published records, which were found during searches, carried out in the apartment of Hennadiy Korban, leader of political party «UKROP». General Prosecutor’s Office states that found records point at the maintenance of off-the-book and raider seizure of a number of enterprises.

In particular, there are records with fixed facts of many arrival and payments regarding the raider seizure of «Amstor» supermarket chain by the company «Smart-Holding» (belongs to oligarch, people’s deputy of the Opposition block Vadim Novinskii), famous blogger Anton Shwets states. According to the information from the documents, 15.01.2015 Mikoltesia company (It has been written in parentheses ‘Smart’) transferred 2 mln. dollars to Korban’s account. 30.04.2015 Korban received 1 mln. dollars from the same company. At that, there are marks in the documents concerning Korban’s expenses for the project «Amstor» – they constitute 700 thous. dollars, Shvets points out.

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Whereas Viktor Chumak marks that, «these documents can become documents of procedural character, if there is investigation and proceedings».

It is to be recalled that on 31 December 2014 armed people raided supermarkets of the «Amstor» chain all over Ukraine, they called themselves the representatives of new management – «Smart-Holding» company (property of Russian oligarch with Ukrainian passport Vadim Novitskii). Legal attack was carried out before that – with the help of forged documents, with the assistance of employees of the State Registration Service, there had been performed illegal change of «Amstor» founders. Recently most of the enterprises of «Amstor» group of companies are in the process of bankruptcy, part of their premises was transferred to the «Silpo» chain for long-term lease.

Nearly every item in the Gennady Korban’s “black books”, published by the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, may become the cause for criminal prosecution. This opinion has been expressed by the prosecutor of the General Prosecution Office Valery Karputsov.

“Any data, as you know, any reports, any information, in accordance with the new Code of Criminal Procedure, is added to the Unified Register of pre-trial investigations. And in this case, if we have physical evidence of certain operations with money, property, they are usually subject to investigation in terms of the Code of Criminal Procedure”, – V. Karpuntsov noted.

It’s worth recalling, that in late December 2015 the Office of Prosecutor General of Ukraine has published records, found during the search, carried out in Gennady Korban’s office, the leader of political party “UKROP”. The OPG claims that the found records point at the keeping “black books” and raid of a number of enterprises.

Valery Karpuntsov also commented on the information about Gennady Korban’s “black books” containing data on collusion between Dnepropetrovsk businessman and “Smart-Holding” of Vadim Novinsky regarding the illegal takeover of the supermarket chain “Amstor”. Back in January the famous blogger Anton Shvets wrote, that Korban’s records contain the amount of money income and payouts related to the raid of “Amstor”. According to the information from documents, 15.01.2015 2 million dollars were transferred to Koban’s account from the company Mikoltesia (with “Smart” written in brackets). 30.04.2015 Korban receives another one million dollars from the same company. There are also notes about Korban’s expenses on the project “Amstor” – a total amount of more than 700 thousand dollars, as Shvets noted.

“Yes, I do recall. There was enough information. As far as I remember it has been reported publicly that there is an “Amstor” proceeding, and more than one. Thus, the investigations of the documentation is being held within one of these proceedings”, – V. Karpuntsov said.

It’s worth reminding, that on December 31, 2015 armed men, calling themselves the representatives of the new management – the company “Smart-Holding” (owned by Russian oligarch with Ukrainian passport Vadim Novinsky), burst into the supermarkets of “Amstor” chain throughout Ukraine. The legal attack took place prior to that – the “Amstor” founders’ names were changed using forged documents and with the help of State Registration Service workers. As of today, the proceedings with respect to the majority of
the “Amstor” company group enterprises are opened, and part of stores premises is transferred for the long-term lease to “Silpo” chain.

Illegal seizure of the Amstor supermarket chain in December 2014 on the request of Vadim Novinsky was performed by the Dnepropetrovsk businessmen
’s structures of Boris Filatov and Hennadiy Korban.

A well-known blogger Anton Shvets, Chief Editor of the Peter and Mazepa publication writes about it in his article Amstor.

In his article the author cites a number of facts that, one way or another, prove on the involvement of Filatov and Korban in seizure. For example, all firms of the Amstor companies’ group after the capture of the supermarket chain were re-registered under a new legal address: the city of Dnepropetrovsk, 27 Leningradskaya Street. The public reception office of Boris Filatov, People’s Deputy is registered at the same address. Forceful support of the seizure, according to Shvets, was provided by Hennadiy Korban, a friend of Filatov, who arranged the fighters of volunteer battalions
of Dniper-1 and Right Sector for the seizure.

Dear editors had already written about the conflict around oligarch Novinskyi and supermarket chain Amstor. It is time to analyze the situation in more detail, moreover, in this case new information had come to hand.

Dear editors had already written about the conflict around oligarch Novinskyi and supermarket chain Amstor. It is time to analyze the situation in more detail, moreover, in this case new information had come to hand.

First off we will refresh your memory about the start of the conflict more than a year ago, in December 2014, the situation was as follows.

It was turbulent 2014 and Mr. Kolomoiskyi with «experts on contentious negotiations» actively pinched any business of infernal persons from Oleg Tsarev to Dmitry Firtash. All’s fair in war, and at that time the society had reached some consensus on the admissibility of attacks on assets of pro-Russian agents of influence in Ukraine. It was two months the famous «How about a cup of coffee?», and the conventional group Privat kept away from reputation of plain pirates and casted oneself as a noble corsairs in the service of Her Majesty Ukraine.

According to the activists, the Ukrainian corruption resembles a fairy-tale three-headed dragon. You cut one head – two grow in its place! It is impossible to kill the virus with one sword, changing the legislation is extremely difficult. We need only a demonstrative execution of corrupt officials!

Who is stronger, the Dragon or Vadim Vladislavovich?!

For two years Maidan have been fighting against corruption, but the activists are still unable to eliminate the cancer metastases yet. Ukraine remains the most corrupt country in Europe. In the rating of the non-governmental international organization for combating corruption Transparency International, our country is among such countries as Afghanistan, Sudan, North Korea and Somalia. “26 out of possible 100 points and 142nd out of 175 positions – these are indicators of Ukraine in the current Corruption Perception Index of Transparency International. Once again Ukraine proved to be on the same level with Uganda and Comoros, as one of the most corrupt countries in the world “, – the organization report says.

Almost a year has passed since December 2014 when one of the largest retail chains “Amstor” was subject to illegal takeover by the representatives of “Smart-Holding,” owned by oligarch Vadim Novinsky. Immediately after the takeover the raider presented “loud” statements on “prompt launch of a trading network”, addressing the staff with promises of cloudless future in the workplace, announcing significant investments in the development of “Amstor”.

However, the situation resulted only in bankruptcy. Everything was organized and directed in a very short term, in a hurry, violating numerous legal rules with the cooperation and full support of the corrupt court staff, police, prosecutors, tax authorities of Dnipropetrovsk region.

The future bankruptcy of “Amstor” was announced immediately after the takeover. Many experts reminded that “Smart-Holding” performed more than one illegal takeover and bankruptcy procedure. There was a time when the country was shaken by the events associated with virtually a destruction of the shipbuilding industry in Ukraine owing to privatization and subsequent bankruptcy of Kherson and Black Sea shipbuilding companies of Novinsky, “Ocean” plant, privatization and further removal from the register of owners of Inguletsk mining and processing complex which was the largest in Ukraine. One of the latest schemes is a fraud with obtaining refinancing and loss of assets of “Forum” bank. All these drastic events were directly related to “Smart-Holding” of Novinskiy.

Not long ago, some online-based media reported the news – the companies of SC “Amstor” were declared bankrupt. After the raider attacks in December 2014 and the “expedient” management by “Smart-Holding” once a successful retailing chain “Amstor” quickly turned into a “scorched land lot” and joined other Ukrainian companies, which started the process of artificially managed bankruptcy. Everything was organized and directed in a very short term, in a hurry, violating numerous legal rules with the cooperation and full support of the corrupt court staff, police, prosecutors, tax authorities of Dnipropetrovsk region.

“Amstor” taken over by the raiders implemented a cynical scheme previously developed: complete interruption of economic activities, accumulation of debts due to thebankruptcy scheme, transfer of assets and cash flow to the newly created companies controlled by “Smart-Holding”. The “deserted” companies preserved only preserved multibillion debts to creditors – numerous suppliers and banks, including state-owned ones. The property of the company taken over is being stolen and sold according to corruption schemes, without payment of taxes to the budget and without the transfer of funds to the accounts of companies owning the property, with the tacit consent and omission of the corrupt power structures. Someone is lining pockets on that; the state is also affected as it incurs multi-million losses.

In the period of 2004-2014 “Amstor” retail chain became one of the top national retail chains in Ukraine. It includes 38 supermarkets and shopping centers in 7 regions. One of its competitive advantages is high-quality and healthy products of own production – natural sausages, meat and fish delicacies, exclusive pastry, unique selection of breads baked right in the store and restaurant level cookery. “Amstor” won the confidence of the buyers thanks to its particular attention to cleanliness and careful quality control.

According to the research conducted by GT PartnersUkraine consulting company in 2012 “Amstor” entered the TOP 10 food operators in Ukraine: “Amstor” chain was ranked the eighth in turnover and the ninth in total retail space. “Amstor” became the leader in Ukraine in the quantity of hypermarket format shops. In 2014 the total retail space accounted 103 thousand square meters and the total area of all the shopping centers was more than 300 thousand square meters.

The idea to open the first grocery hypermarket of European level in Donetsk came to Vladimir Vagorovsky after visiting modern grocery supermarkets in Europe with their wide selection of fresh products, vegetables, fruits, a fine assortment of flavorful baking and delicatessen.